HallettEmployment Law Services Ltd

Redundancy Policy & Procedure PRED01 £20 plus VAT

Redundancy is a potentially fair reason for terminating a contact of employment. However, the actual fairness of termination for redundancy depends very much on the fairness of the process and procedure followed by the employer in deciding who loses their job, and in carrying out the actual redundancy.
This is a comprehensive document which takes the employer through the entire redundancy process stage by stage. It highlights issues that the employer needs to address at each stage of the process, including considering steps to avoid the need to make any role redundant, consultation with affected staff, selection for redundancy, consideration of alternative roles, and the conduct of meetings.
The document is aimed at dealing with small scale redundancies (i.e. fewer than 20 at a time), but also addresses some of the distinct issues relevant to large scale redundancies.
This policy document can be used with other available documents, including letters dealing with each distinct stage of the process, and an example selection criteria and assessment form.
Consistent use of the redundancy procedure should limit the risk of exposure to claims of unfair or discriminatory selection of staff.
The procedure recommends that the documentation is produced and retained by the business. In particular, the case law indicates that it is crucial that employers rely on documentation (such as past appraisals) in supporting the decisions reached on any selection of staff for redundancy, in addition to producing and retaining the actual selection and any selection scoring documentation.This will help defending any allegation of unfair or discriminatory selection for redundancy.